KYIV. Nov 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry and grain exporters have signed a memorandum of understanding for the 2015/2016 marketing year to guarantee food security in Ukraine.
“The goal of the memorandum is to ensure the predictability of the grain market mainly in terms of exports and guarantee food security,” Minister Oleksandr Pavlenko said at a briefing on Thursday.
In his words, market operators have drawn up a quarterly schedule for food wheat exports. The amount of grain exports are fixed for the entire marketing year.
“We expect that grain exports in the 2015/2016 marketing year will be 36 million tonnes. The existing pace of exports will let us ensure such amounts,” the minister said.
He also said that food wheat exports in the fourth quarter of 2015 and in the first quarter of 2016 are expected at 1.5 million tonnes each, and 1.4 million tonnes of food wheat is expected to be shipped abroad in the second quarter of 2016.
Under the memorandum, wheat exports in the entire 2015/2016 marketing year are projected at 16.6 million tonnes, barley – at 3.9 million tonnes, maize – at 16 million tonnes, and rye – at 8,000 tonnes.
